My commentary on Shroud of Turin related matters. I am an Australian evangelical Christian in my 70s. I am persuaded by the evidence that the Shroud of Turin is the burial sheet of Jesus Christ and bears His crucified and resurrected image.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

X-rays #22: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!

Introduction The frontal image of the man on the Shroud includes under-the-skin x-ray images of his skull[2], cheekbones[3], teeth[4], finger bones[5], hand bones[6] and the dorsal image his spine[7]. See also 10Dec15.

[Above (enlarge)[8]: A Polarized Image Overlay[9] photograph showing the Shroud face (left) compared to an x-ray image of a human skull (right). As can be seen, the Shroud image contains teeth and skull bone structures that are beneath the man's skin, which are only seen in x-ray radiographs or other modern imaging techniques.]

The Shroud man's finger and hand bones are x-ray images Sceptics had claimed that the Shroud was a medieval forgery because the man's "hands and fingers [were] unnaturally long and spidery"[10]. However in 1984, Giles F. Carter (1930-2010), a Professor of

Chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, who for 15 years had specialised in x-ray fluorescence analysis[12], proposed that parts of the Shroud man's image were the result of:

"... x-rays emanating from the bones of the man in the Shroud ... absorbed by elements (e.g., sodium, silicon, phosphorus, potassium, calcium) at the surface of the body, which would then fluoresce and emit secondary x-rays of relatively long wavelength"[13].

Carter noted that the fingers in the Shroud image "are extremely long for a man of 1.73-1.78 m (5'8" - 5'10") height" and "the probability is very small that a man of this height would have such long fingers"[14]. After considering other explanations of the Shroud man's too-long fingers, Carter proposed that, "the finger images may be due at least in part to x-rays emanating from the bones in the body":

"...the finger images may be due at least in part to x-rays emanating from the bones in the body. Finger bones continue throughout much of the hand, and they could cause the fingers to look too long. In normal bodies, the ratio of the distance from the middle fingertip to the base of the finger divided by the distance from the middle fingertip to the wrist (wound area) is about 0.5. This compares with a ratio of about 0.6 for the image on the Shroud, meaning that the fingers are unusually long and the rest of the hand is grotesquely small. The probability for this to have occurred must be small"[15].

In 1992, Dr Alan Whanger, using his Polarized Image Overlay technique, was studying both positive and negative photographs of the Shroud man's hands when he realised that he was "clearly seeing the bones in the fingers and the palm of the hand (the phalanges and the metacarpals)" - see above:

"It was immediately apparent to me that I was clearly seeing the bones in the fingers and the palm of the hand (the phalanges and the metacarpals). I have had considerable clinical experience in reading x-rays, but I took a photograph of this to a professor of skeletal radiology who agreed that indeed the bones are visible. I got x-rays of my own hands in the same position as those on the Shroud, and it became readily apparent that we were seeing the knuckles and the base of the thumb on the Shroud image"[16].

Whanger's identification of "the metacarpal bones and the three phalange bones of each finger" was confirmed correct by "Michael Blunt, Challis Professor of Anatomy at the University of Sydney"[17].

The man's left thumb bones are visible under his left hand The man's curved and inverted left thumb bones are visible under his left palm[18]. His right thumb bones may also be visible flexed under

The Shroud man's teeth are visible through his closed mouth Carter tentatively identified "in the mouth area ... eight or more objects, two rows of four or six" as "teeth images":

"A second curious part of the Shroud image is the mouth area. Close inspection ... shows the presence of what appear to be eight or more objects, two rows of four or six ... Perhaps these could be teeth images ... Because the lips probably covered the teeth of the body of the Shroud, any images of teeth may indicate that x-rays have been involved in the formation of the Shroud image ..."[21].

[Above (enlarge)[22]: Extract from Shroud Scope of a close-up positive photograph of the Shroud man's mouth area. As can be seen, under the skin of the man's upper and lower lips are at least 4 pairs of upper and lower teeth with a bite line between them.]

Parts of the Shroud man's skull bones are visible Parts of the man's skull bones that are visible under his skin include those of his

[Above (enlarge)[26]: Enrie 1931 negative photograph of the man in the Shroud's head showing parts of his skull are visible under the skin, including his forehead, eye socket (supraorbital ridge or brow ridge), cheekbones and teeth.]

[Above (enlarge): "A nuclear radiation image produced by Dr August Accetta [left]... after injecting himself with a weak radioactive substance. The `V' shape in the genital area is a protective shield. The image has convincing VP-8 three-dimensionality, thereby replicating the Shroud [centre]. And particularly striking is the image of the hands [right top and bottom] ... compared to those on the Shroud, seen between them. Unlike in the case of the Shroud, the process showed up Dr Accetta's internal organs. Conceivably, therefore, the Shroud process was similar, though a mainly surface phenomenon only"[39].]

Turin Shroud"[40] and "those characteristics which are similar can potentially help to explain better those seen on the Shroud as well as point to the probable general origin of its image"[41]. Wilson listed those similarities between Accetta, et al.'s results and the Shroud:

"First, it was conclusively demonstrated that a full-body radiation image could be produced by this means, without the application of any paints or dyes, which replicated all the Shroud image's monochromatic characteristics. Second, the image had the same collimated, or straight-up, straight-down character as that of the Shroud's imprint, though in fairness it should be said that a collimator in the set-up ensured this, since otherwise the radiation would have spilled out at all sides. Third, apart from its being slightly more distinct against its background, the image had the same lack of outline as that on the Shroud. Fourth, the image shared the Shroud's otherwise seemingly unique lack of any light focus. Fifth, the Shroud's X-ray properties were strikingly replicated, spectacularly in the case of the hands, in which the metacarpal bones and phalange or finger bones could clearly be distinguished with a most compelling similarity to these same bones on the Shroud. Sixth, when viewed via the VP-8 Image Analyzer, Accetta's body exhibited the same three-dimensional properties as that on the Shroud imprint, the limbs being particularly similar"[42].

Problem for the forgery theory (see previous three: #19, #20 and #21). So, far from the Shroud man's "unnaturally long and spidery" hands and fingers being evidence that the Shroud was a medieval forgery (see above), they along with the other parts of the man's image where his underlying bones are visible, are yet another problem (to put it mildly) for the forgery theory! That is because x-rays were first generated and detected by Fernando Sanford (1854–1948) in 1891[43] and first studied and named by Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) in 1895[44]. Therefore a medieval or earlier forger would not have known about x-ray images, let alone depicted them![45].

Resurrection! After considering naturalistic alternatives (which don't fit the evidence and are so fantastic that it is highly unlikely that any Shroud sceptic would endorse them), Carter proposed that the Shroud is that of Jesus Christ, and the energy released by His resurrection "was partly in the form of x-rays, which then reacted with the linen":

"Another explanation, which should not be automatically rejected by scientists, is that perhaps the Shroud of Turin is in reality the Shroud of Jesus Christ, and perhaps some unknown process resulted in the resurrection, and the energy released by this process was partly in the form of x-rays, which then reacted with the linen Shroud as described above"[46]

Of course scientists should not "automatically reject..." any theory that fits the evidence, but modern science is dominated by the unproven and unprovable philosophy of Naturalism, which holds that `nature is all there is - there is no supernatural'[47]. Even pro-authenticist scientists (who are not necessarily Christians - the late Alan D. Adler (1931-2000) was evidently not, being Jewish), can be unwittingly captive to Naturalism (Col 2:8), so they balk at the resurrection of Jesus as an explanation of the image of the man on the Shroud. For example, Adler dismissed Carter's x-ray theory as:

"... fine chemically, fine physically, yet bizarre biologically ... the man would have been so radioactive that he glowed in the dark. Not to mention he would have been dead long ago from the radioactivity"[48]

But the fallacies in Adler's rejection of Carter's resurrection explanation are: 1) Jesus was already dead - that's what "resurrection" means; 2) x-rays are electromagnetic, not nuclear, radiation, so there would have been minimal radioactivity (Accetta did not die); and 3) from a naturalistic perspective, the resurrection of Jesus, in which His body was transformed into a "glorious body" (Php 3:21; 1Cor 15:51-53), is "bizarre biologically"!

Given that: 1) "the odds [are conservatively] ... 1 in 83 million that the man on the shroud is not Jesus Christ" [11Nov16]; 2) Jesus' apostles and over 500 of His disciples saw and heard the Jesus they knew resurrected after His death (1Cor 15:3-8; Mt 28:16-20, etc); and 3) as we saw in this series it is evidence for the resurrection of Jesus in that the image of the man on the Shroud: has "No style" #16; is "Non-directional" #17; is a "Negative" #19; is "Three-dimensional" #20; and in this part #22 it contains X-ray images; and as we shall see in "Blood clots intact" #24 and "No image under blood" #25. So the evidence is overwhelming that the image of the man on the Shroud is, as Wilson put it, "a literal `snapshot' of the Resurrection" of Jesus:

"Even from the limited available information, a hypothetical glimpse of the power operating at the moment of creation of the Shroud's image may be ventured. In the darkness of the Jerusalem tomb the dead body of Jesus lay, unwashed, covered in blood, on a stone slab. Suddenly, there is a burst of mysterious power from it. In that instant ... its image ... becomes indelibly fused onto the cloth, preserving for posterity a literal `snapshot' of the Resurrection"[49]!

It is not "only the fingers and hand bones" which "are x-rays images." As I stated at the start, with references, "The frontal image of the man on the Shroud includes under-the-skin x-ray images of his skull, cheekbone, teeth, finger bones, hand bones and spine" (footnotes omitted). I will elaborate on those in future installments.

>Why is not the whole body an s-ray image ?

Carter explained that high-energy, short wavelength, x-rays would pass through the Shroud. Only "x-rays [that] would have been absorbed by elements at the surface of the body... and ... x-rays of relatively long wavelengths would be emitted due to an x-ray fluorescence effect":

"If moderately strong x-rays emanated from the bones and teeth of this body ... then some of the x-rays would have been absorbed by elements at the surface of the body, such as sodium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, and calcium, as well as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, and characteristic x-rays of relatively long wavelengths would be emitted due to an x-ray fluorescence effect. These x-rays, many of which were presumably emitted from the surface of the body, would then have interacted with both air and cellulose. Air strongly attenuates x-rays of long wavelengths, and even cellulose absorbs a high percentage of soft x-rays in a few micrometers. However, energetic x-rays (short wavelengths) would not be attenuated by air to any appreciable extent and would largely pass through cellulose (linen) without absorption ..." (Carter, G.F., 1982, "Formation of the Image on the Shroud of Turin by x-Rays: A New Hypothesis," in Lambert, J.B., ed., 1984, "Archaeological Chemistry III: ACS Advances in Chemistry, No. 205," American Chemical Society, Washington D.C., pp.425-446, 433)

I presume he means that when a high-energy, short wavelength x-ray encounters the calcium in a bone or tooth, it is converted into to a lower-energy, long wavelength x-ray, which then fluoresces when it is "absorbed by [the above listed] elements at the surface of the body".

Stephen E. Jones----------------------------------MY POLICIES. Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. Except that comments under my latest post can be on any one Shroud-related topic. To avoid time-wasting debate I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts.

I deleted a comment, and its follow-up, because at first I wrongly thought it was a good question and published it.

But as I was answering it I realised it was a different question from what I thought, and the answer of which was so obvious that I assumed the commenter must have known the answer (or if they thought about it they would know the answer).

So I deemed the comment to be "sub-standard" (see below) and deleted the comment and its follow-up.

Stephen E. Jones----------------------------------MY POLICIES. Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. Except that comments under my latest post can be on any one Shroud-related topic. To avoid time-wasting debate I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts.

My policies

Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. Except that comments under my latest post can be on any Shroud-related topic without being off-topic. I reserve the right to respond to any comment as a separate blog post.

Debates After over a decade (1994-2005) debating creation/ evolution/ design on Internet discussion groups, I concluded that Internet debates were largely a waste of time, so I ceased debating and started blogging. Therefore I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts.

Private messages I receive on Shroud of Turin related topics, I reserve the right to respond publicly via this blog, quoting the message or email, minus the senders' personal identifying information, unless that is self-evident.